Student Stories

How to score a 730 on the GMAT: Matt's story

Today meet Matt from New York. He’s a 28 year old technologist who wants to get an MBA to advance in the industry. He chatted with us about how to fit GMAT prep into an already-busy schedule, how to set a proper study schedule and what not to do the week before the exam.

How did the GMAT turn out for you?

After utilizing the Economist GMAT Tutor program, my score jumped from a 660 to a 730.

What advice would you give someone who has just begun studying for the GMAT?

Find a structured program that fits your needs. Due to the volatility of my work schedule, Economist GMAT Tutor fit the bill. The flexible format made all the difference. The availability of my tutor, Jake W., really helped a lot. Jake worked around my treacherous schedule and did so with a smile!

Do you have any secrets to your GMAT success that you can share?

One key component to my success was leveraging the “Ask-a-tutor” feature of the program. It is easy to get frustrated when a concept seems foreign or unintuitive, and this feature allowed me to ask a real person any question that popped into my mind. I spent over 100 hours working through the content, so as you could imagine, I used this feature quite often. A quick tip for leveraging this feature: write down and submit your thought process exactly how it occurred. This will allow the tutor to gain some perspective about your approach and devise a customized response. Aaron Lin, the quant tutor who responded to a majority of my submissions, is phenomenal. He really spent time trying to understand how I was approaching problems.

Was there a key component to your study routine?

I know it sounds cliché, but consistency is key. Setting up late night tutoring sessions well in advance helped me stay on track. I would tell Jake exactly what I plan to accomplish prior to our next meeting as a way to hold myself accountable. Knowing that there would be some type of debrief after blocks of material made the process feel less onerous.

What was the most stressful part of your GMAT prep?

The most stressful part about taking the GMAT for me was that last week before the exam. I felt obligated to cram everything I could into a short four-day period. I participated in a strategy tutoring session with Jake a week before the actual exam and it reinforced what I already knew; do not take that approach. It sounds counterintuitive, but I had to put away the laptop/iPad and just relax. That is very difficult to do after dedicating so much time to studying.

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GMAT Tutor is provided by The Economist Group in co-operation with Mindojo - an education technology company. Content in this course has been written by accredited GMAT instructors and Economist staff. Where opinion is expressed it is done so for educational impact and does not necessarily coincide with the editorial views of The Economist Newspaper.